the confession tree
by tzaya
Summary: what'd have happened if nene said 'yes' to hanako under the confession tree?


The pile of leaf crunched underneath his black shoes.

_You can easily forget it wasn't autumn if you stood here_, he mused. There were still an abundant amount of leaves left on the branches despite the way the tree was practically _shedding_ at this point, the leaves falling all around him as though he was in a play. The Kodama was really setting the scene for a confession. Quite an admirable effort, though it could never compete with cherry blossoms.

The tree gave the impression of being normal by the exterior, blending in with the others around it, but Hanako could sense the supernatural energy radiating off of it – which increased tenfold in strength each time he inched closer. It must've grown even bigger with the rumour talks surrounding the so-called confession tree.

Something had to be done.

"Hanako-kun!"

Nene's familiar, bubbly voice called for him, snapping him out of his stupor.

"There you are," Hanako angled his body towards her, a warm smile forming on his lips. He didn't waste any more time, hands reaching out to hold her shoulders. "Well, I know this is sudden, but..."

"T-This is too fast!"

She was a great actress. The flushed face, accompanied with her stuttering and airy laughter was so genuinely convincing that he found himself almost beginning to believe it wasn't an act.

"Yashiro."

Hanako pulled on a serious demeanour. To be on par with Nene, he had to pretend this was a gravely matter. He sucked in a deep breath before proceeding.

"Yashiro, I love you! Go out with me!"

"Yes!"

_Good job, Yashiro!_

They each gave one another a nod.

The anticipated response from the Kodama never came.

In fact, the only thing that ended up happening was that there was a split second where their surroundings took a pink hue. And it took another second for the situation to sink in for him – to fully process that what had come out of Nene's mouth was not the answer that they'd agreed on. To be fair, they didn't exactly work out the details beforehand, but he'd assumed that Nene was already well aware of his plan.

"Wait, what?"

"I- I know you like me, Hanako-kun! That's why you've been saying such erotic things and teasing me!"

"Well," That wasn't exactly wrong, but, that was beside the point. He shook his head. _Yashiro was supposed to –_ "You were supposed to say no."

"Why would I say no? I'm finally getting confessed to," Nene blinked at him in confusion.

Perhaps she was indeed clueless. But she'd mentioned that she knew about the confession tree, so she must've known that it was a Kodama, right? Plus, wasn't her type much different than him, and had prince-like features?

"Because–"

His words were cut off by a soft thud. There was an unknown fruit shaped almost like a heart that had fallen to the ground. The only logical explanation was that it came from the tree. However, upon closer inspection, there tree didn't strike him as one of fruit bearing. There wasn't even a single fruit hanging off of any of the branches.

He hadn't heard news about other couples being given this, either.

They were the only exception.

"That's strange," Hanako averted his gaze away from the tree and back to Nene, who had taken a bite of the mysterious fruit. His pupils grew with shock, and by the time he snatched the fruit from her hands, she'd long swallowed what she managed to munch of it.

"Yashiro, what have you done this time?" He wasn't sure what he'd expected, considering she'd consumed a mermaid scale without an ounce of hesitance before.

"…Yashiro?"

The hint of concern came through in his tone of voice once he caught sight of Nene's face. Her eyes were glazed over, as if she was in a trance. He cupped her cheeks in his palms, which seemed to bring her back, but not quite.

"Hanako-kun."

"Yeah."

"I want to be with you, even if you're not my type!" Nene engulfed him in an embrace, unwilling to let go.

It was clear to him then. The reason that they were the only pair to get the fruit meant that the Kodama had also sensed their supernatural auras and figured that it needed to take an extra step to ensure that the love spell worked. Before the fruit, none of them were affected at all.

The tree's spell had taken control of her after Nene ate the fruit. He couldn't tell whether it was better for it to only influence Nene or the both of them instead, he contemplated as Nene began to nuzzle his cheek. Of course, he wasn't going to go out of his way to eat the fruit just so he could find out.

"What are you doing to senpai?!"

Kou came running out of seemingly nowhere, the Minamoto clan's sacred raiteijou staff clutched tightly in his grasp as if he had plans to hit Hanako with it (had he forgotten that it was sealed off?). In any way, Kou had clearly noticed how oddly clingy Nene was being.

"Ah, good timing, boy!" Hanako breathed a sigh of relief.

There wasn't a need for him to search for another person to lure the Kodama out with. Kou would do just fine. The boy was kind of clumsy himself, but he wasn't as clumsy as Nene.

Though Nene, or should he say, under-the-spell Nene had a different mind.

"Hanako-kun is mine!" Nene frowned, holding Hanako back from approaching Kou, "You find someone else, Kou-kun."

"S- senpai?"

Hanako merely chortled. It was better to not drag this out, as amusing it was to witness Nene's antics. He made a mental note to tease her later. "Well, anyway! I'm going to say something, just reply with a 'no'!"

Kou nodded, despite the puzzled expression etched on his face.

"Minamoto Kou, I like you, go out with me!"

Kou looked to be taken aback for a moment, lips parted, cheeks flushed and Hanako almost thought he was going to end up in a spiel of 'what are you talking about', 'we can't, my job is to exorcise supernaturals', or something along that – until Kou sensed there was something off with the tree.

They exchanged a knowing look.

"No?"

"Well now, we can't have that!"

There it was.

The booming, deep voice resonated around them. The Kodama was finally showing its true nature, a face forming on the bark. "If someone confesses their love to you, the proper thing to do is accept! Love is what leads people to happiness, and it would be preposterous to refuse it. I shall assist you to find happiness."

"What is that even - it's creepy," Nene and Kou muttered in unison.

"How rude! And after I've helped you?"

The Kodama extended its branches to attack. Kou managed to evade in time with his skills. It didn't have more luck with Nene either, the second branch couldn't even come close as to graze Nene, with a barrier forming around her blocking the hit. The charm Hanako had planted on Nene before glowed in bright pink on her cheek.

"Though you may have gotten her to eat the fruit, you can't get past my protective charm," Hanako grinned, materialising his cape and pulling out his knife, "Thank goodness I have help, since you're an apparition who only appears to couples."

"A school wonder! I have done nothing to be ashamed of, I merely worked to make everyone happy!"

The Kodama panicked as it recognized Hanako, attempting to justify its actions and passing them off as a good deed, to which Hanako ignored.

"That's called being a busybody," Hanako commented. The last thing the Kodama saw was a glint of light reflecting off of the blade before he was taken down.

The Kodama had been greatly reduced in size in result of going head to head with him, a bit funny-looking but at least it no longer served harm to others. What's left after this was the rumour that they had to come up with in order to replace the previous one, something he had to discuss with Nene. She had been great at making and passing new rumours around.

_Speaking of Yashiro._

Hanako sauntered over to Nene, who appeared to have come to, rubbing her temples. Kou on the side was busy being mesmerized with how much the Kodama shrunk.

"W- what happened?" Nene questioned, but before he could give her an answer, the memories flooded back to her, and almost instantaneously, her face turned red.

Hanako chuckled.

"Yashiro, do you like me?"

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a/n: bear w me abt the fruit thing, i had to work around the plot-hole that is nene not being affected by supernatural stuff like other normal people also thanks so much for reading! hope you enjoyed it 3


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